


the Definitely Not Dating game

by weavirtue



Category: Figure Skating RPF, virtuemoir
Genre: Business Partner, F/M, Interviews, Mascots, Secret Relationship, The Ellen Show, mention of anxiety attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 17:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15756594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weavirtue/pseuds/weavirtue
Summary: original prompt: Scott and Tessa are on Ellen, and we all know Ellen is known for her prank. Scott get scarred and Tessa get fiercely protective.





	the Definitely Not Dating game

**Author's Note:**

> Please, before reading this, go watch the Ellen interview with the speed on 0.5x, this will crack you up. 
> 
> I ruined this interview for me. I had to watch it over 50 times in the last two days, just to get all the details.

Waking up without Tessa next to him was the weirdest feeling ever. He was so used to her weight on his shoulder, her hair in his face and her tiny hand curled around his neck.  He woke up and reached for his phone to start the day he usually would – by wishing a good morning to Tessa, also known as the love of his life. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness of his phone, his eyes widened. Right there was a text from Tessa. He double-checked the time and almost fell from the best. It was only 7am, what was she doing awake? And then, everything came crushing back on him. 

They were in Los Angeles.

They were filming on Ellen today. 

They would lie about their relationship on the biggest American Talk Show. 

They had split rooms, because Tessa would have a make-up and hair team over at hers. 

Scott was not ready – both for the show and for the prank that he knew was coming. 

He woke up and walked still half asleep to the bathroom where he took a quick shower before jumping into the clothes Tessa had chosen for him and then he sat down to respond to Tessa’s text. 

S – I just woke up, can’t believe you’re up before me.   
T – haha. It takes an army to make me look half decent.   
S – T, shut up. You’re always beautiful. 

He knew he had made her smile when her reply didn’t come right away. He snap a quick selfie of himself wearing the shirt and the vest to make sure it was okay and he waited until he saw her thumb up emoji to walk out of his room to hers. He knocked and entered with the spare key card they had exchanged as soon as they had checked in. He walked in and went to kiss her cheek but a look from the brunette stopped him and he simply sat on her bed, pouting like a petulant child. 

S – I couldn’t sleep with you and now I can’t even kiss your cheek? ☹   
T – Stop being a child Scott, you know why we can’t. I’ll give you plenty of kissed tonight. 

He smiled and lounged there, happy to wait for the people to work their magic on Tessa, even if she was always beautiful to him. 

One hour, two cup of coffee and countless text messages, Scott and Tessa were on their way to the studio. Scott was fidgeting way more than usual in those kinds of situation which forced Tessa to take his hands in hers in the car driving them. “Scott, breathe with me.” This was all it took for Scott to snap out of it and squeeze her hands back, smiling at her. She knew he wanted to say something but she could read it in his eyes and she let her walls go down for a few seconds, letting him before closing them again to protect what was the most important relationship of her life. 

Everything was a blur for Scott from the moment the car stopped to the second his butt was seating in the white couch facing Ellen DeGeneres herself. He knew they had just danced their intro due to his increased body temperature and the way Tessa was breathing a little bit too hard. Scott’s thoughts were cut by Ellen’s voice. 

“So your fans campaigned to get you on the show. I mean it was... It was trending on Twitter... It was a huge deal.” Announced Ellen and Scott snapped back to T-time, smiling at Ellen and Tessa, feeling rather embarrassed. Before he could even think of an answer Tessa’s voice was resonating around him. “That’s so… It’s so heartwarming and I have to admit – social media is still relatively new for us. It’s new territory.” Scott cut her off, murmuring. “We’re like the only one in the world.” making Tessa giggle before she refocused and kept talking. “In Vancouver and in Sochi, both of those Olympics, neither of us were active on social media and were fiercely private… so this is been really special to sort of share our Olympic experience with so many people and this is such a thrill and an honor so thank you to everyone for getting us here.” 

Scott lost himself in the interview. He had strict orders not to say too much in case he would slip up once again. He just nodded along and smiled, laughed when needed but mostly he was content to look at Tessa, trying to be subtle about it and failing miserably. The audience was cheering for Tessa as she finished her little speech and I had to hold onto my self-control and poker face really hard at Tessa’s answer. 

“So... Now you are the most decorated figure skaters in history, has that sunk in yet?” Asked Ellen and Scott knew it was his turn to take the question as it was an easy one to answer without going to deep into anything personal. “That is a pretty amazing compliment. Obviously a lot of things have to go right to have three different cycles, especially as a team.” Scott looked at Tessa and saw everything that was going through is mind mirrored in her eyes, he smiled and looked down, as if he has just checked with Tessa that his answer was okay. “And yeah… It’s been pretty special.”

Before Ellen even opened her mouth, Scott knew the dating question was coming next and he knew he had to keep him mouth closed. Ellen looked at them and smirked. “And twenty years skating together. And you have chemistry, obviously.” Scott could feel Tessa tense next to him and he was dying to grab her hand but it was one of those interviews were there wasn’t any table to hide their hands or legs under. Scott could do nothing to help Tessa, and it was starting to make him anxious. He chose to tap on her arms, to make sure she knew he was with her, no matter what. Pulling her attention on him for a hot second, he forced a smile on his face the second he read how desperate Tessa was to be anywhere but here. “And a lot of people are saying that there is more than just chemistry there, that you’re couple.” Tessa was nodding periodically, showing that she was indeed listening while Scott just slipped up, again. “They are?” 

Tessa forced a laugh out and make it seems like it was a funny joke while in reality it had landed too close to home for her liking. Even Ellen seemed to have been unsettled but his slip up, not knowing how to finish her sentence. “They said that — that’s what they say. I think you’ve heard that before.” The entire studio laughed at that, and Scott knew in that moment that Tessa would be upset with him even if she had relaxed a little bit in her seat. 

Scott was looking at the photo of them during their short dance, not even paying attention to anything but the fact that they had choreographed their dances to allow as much couply-things to be involved. Both Tessa and Scott loved to touch the other on and off the ice. They were both touchy people. It was a freedom to be able to do it on the ice without thinking about it. The fact that Scott wasn’t paying attention to Ellen, his reaction to her next words had been the truth. 

“I mean, are you a couple?” 

Scott Moir’s head decided — on its own accord — to move up and down, still watching at the photos, trying to disguise the biggest slip up of all time by acknowledging his Olympics memories. “We are not but you know, we always say that that’s a big compliment. Because what we portray on the ice is really important to us, and we love getting into character. We love telling a story. And a lot of the emotions we portray are universal themes that resonate with everyone so the fact that people feel…” Scott felt her glance all the way down his toe, making his body shiver from the intensity she let him see with one look. She was showing him that he was not in as much trouble as he thought he would be. “…invested in our partnership is truly remarkable. And I mean we’ve spent 20 years working hard on this partnership, a lot of trust, and mostly — I mean, in this moments when the music ended in PyeongChang. I just looked at Scott and I was so grateful to have lived the last twenty years by his side and to share in that moment together.” Tessa finished her speech and before Scott could do something stupid like hug her or kiss her, Ellen broke the tension with a funny and simple “So you’re a couple” making the entire room laugh, including Tessa and Scott. 

Tessa was not one to lose any second of this interview and bounced back to reply with an enigmatic “If we were, we would announce it here.” Proving to Ellen, and the audience, that we were trained and used to those questions. Scott knew that Tessa was about to add something, her voice hadn’t sounded the way it usually did at the end of a sentence. “This would be the place” Scott’s mind was already out and about, thinking of their next visit to announce their relationship. He wouldn’t mind coming back to Los Angeles to do that. His thoughts were once again cut by Ellen’s voice. “Well.. I mean – There’s no -- in 20 years, there’s never been a time you dated at all?”

Scott sighed and got ready as she spoke to respond to the question that has been asked thousands of time before. He knew they had to, but couldn’t the interviewer original and creative? He turned around and put his eyes on Ellen, and then the audience. “Actually, we did date, when we were…” Started Scott, only to be interrupted by a general _aww_. “Just wait” replicated Scott, turning to look at the new photo displayed on the screen behind him, winking at Tessa. “We were about that old” Said Tessa, pointing to the screen, giving time to Scott to get his thoughts in order. He agreed and started speaking again. “Just before that picture was taken. Tessa was 7 and I 9, but we didn’t talk to each other. I remember when we were skating we would just hold hands and avoid eye contact.” Tessa was looking at him, approving of his answer even if her face made it look like she didn’t he knew she did. She was just annoyed at the repetitive questions. Scott changed his tactic and started to charm his way out of the question. “In order to advance our partnership we had to put the hot and heavy relationship on the side.” They locked eyes and Scott cringed at what Tessa said next. “Which means you had to break up with me.” Avoiding eye contact, Scott looked on the floor. “Which may…Yeah, I broke up with Tessa and none of my friends have let me live that down since.” Scott looked up and he could feel how cocky Tessa got during this sentence only, and he was praying someone would change the subject. He was saved by Ellen, once again.

“Wait!” Both focused on Ellen, waiting for her to finish her sentence. “So you did sort of date when you were young?” Tessa started nodding, Scott did a quick double check on this, not believing his eyes. It seems their first relationship meant more than he thought to Tessa, while she was nodding and smiling sweetly, he had to go and ruin the moment by saying “If you can call it that.” Scott started to speak about their families and how they had set them up as kids, but now that they were still skating together after twenty years, it was joke on them. Tessa found herself giggling at his speech, it wasn’t even funny but as always, everything Scott said seemed to be funny to her. She was giving herself away and she started to feel mortified.

Ellen switched the subject to the Olympics, and Tessa started to answer instead of letting Scott handling the easy question. She was playing with fire and it looked like she didn’t realized what she had just done. Scott was meant to say something really loud and really stupid soon. He was trying really hard to keep his face expression neutral and not lean on Tessa or anything. He was trying too hard to be platonic, business partner, bandmates, whatever you wanted to call them. Scott looked at Tessa while she spoke about the Olympics, smiling at her when she looked at her. At some point, there eyes locked and it was as if the world had stopped around them. Scott and Tessa were inside their bubble. Scott was the first one to snap out of it and made a silly face to get Tessa back in the present. Scott heard Ellen said something about family, and Tessa just laughed, not taking any lead into responding so Scott did what he does best, slip. “Families, yeah…” Scott was beating himself up but he didn’t have time to correct himself, Ellen was already speaking. “Oh!! You’re gonna marry different people and stay together?” Tessa forced a laugh and tried not to reach out to hurt Scott at his stupid _yeah_ following by an “I see… great!”

Ellen announced the commercial break and Scott relaxed in his seat, leaning back and looking around him. He was taking everything around him, the lights, the sounds, the micros, and the people. A little girl was waving at them, and he made sure to lock his eyes with her before waking back, making her blush and giggle. He turned around to show Tessa, but she was already looking at both him and the little girl, waving at her as well. Scott realized how much he loved Tessa, and how much of a family he wanted. He had finally found the one person he wanted to be with for the rest of his life. He just needed to be patient now, and everything would fall into place.

The production around them announced there were about to record again, and without missing a beat, Scott was back to his interview persona. They were both holding white boards, and Scott couldn’t even recall what he had written on them, hopefully he had been able to use his brain for those. Ellen opened the new sequence by bringing our relationship status back up front.

“And I know you’re not dating, but we want to find out for sure so we’re going to see how well you know each other in a game we’re calling **_the Definitely Not Dating_** game.” The name and intro of the game was cheesy and Tessa started giggling and for a second Scott got scared of her. She wasn’t one to usually react to that kind of stuff, but by some weird magic, she was now and it was scary. He looked at her and realized that she was nervous and was just trying to cover it up. Ellen explained the rules and how it happened pre-show but Scott could honestly not remember so he was glad he could get the rules out of this before they started.

“Tessa, what it Scott’s favorite TV show?”

“The Office”

“The Office”

“Scott, if Tessa is getting hangry, what food should you give her?”

“Oh, chocolate.”

“Oh… I said breakfast, anything breakfast related.”

“Tessa, who’s Scott celebrity crush?”

“Mh… Walk the line!”

“Reese Witherspoon?”

“Reese Witherspoon, yeah!”

“Oh my God, that’s so funny that you said that. Oh!”

“Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line.”

“Wow”

“I talk a lot about J-Lo”

“Or J-Lo, I should have known about the J-Lo

“Scott, what is Tessa’s guilty pleasure?”

“Oh my Gosh, I feel like i’m using the same card.”

“Tessa, does Scott prefer boxers or briefs?”

“I struggled with this one… I guessed. (briefs)”

“What?”

“I actually said boxer briefs, but is that not a thing?”

“Oh, it is a thing, yeah”

“We have those.”

“Briefs are for work.”

“Scott, if Tessa could pick any actress to play her in a movie, who would she pick?”

“Emma Watson”

“Emma Watson”

“Tessa, what is Scott’s biggest fear?” He knew Tessa would be honest on this one. His phobia of Mascots has been out for some time and usually people take it seriously. He knew it wasn’t a common phobia, but it was a real one. Only Tessa had witnessed how badly Scott really react to those. Tessa giggle and smiled to Scott, turning her board showing the word she had given earlier – Mascots. was about to turn his last card when he felt the entire atmosphere in the room switched and even before it happen he knew what would happen. He truly wasn’t ready and his natural instinct would be to run out of the room, and ditched it all. He was so fed up of people not taking it seriously. Something touched his shoulder, and without turning his head, he saw Tessa’s mouth fall open and eyes widened. He jumped up and away and walked to the backstage area while Ellen, the production and some people in the audience were laughing.  He felt humiliated. He found his way back to his dressing room, and closed the door behind him. He was leaning on it, hands on his knees in order to try to regulate is breathing.

His fear was real, and suddenly Scott saw the world around him close and his vision darkened. He was having a panic attack. He moved to seat on the couch there and immediately bent forward, head between his knees. He had learned this technique when he was 14 years old, with little Tutu next to him, talking him through the event. He was struggling to calm himself when the door opened quietly and he felt her body next to his, her hand moving up and down his back the only contact between them. She knew not to touch him too much in those moments, focusing on breathing loud enough for him to hear and adjust instead.

The moment Scott left the studio, Tessa stood up and looked at Ellen and the prod. “Do you think it’s a joke?” She was so angry, ready to defend her partner but a slight movement from Scott made her understand he would need her soon. She looked at Ellen who was still laughing. “I thought you were a better person than that. You knew he had a real fear of Mascots, and you used this knowledge. I know the pranks are part of the show and all, but couldn’t you choose anything else? You could have literally prank us with anything but that. Our lawyers and agents will be in touch tomorrow for the edit of this episode, if we decide to air it. It’s our choice, understood?” Tessa didn’t wait for any response but walked out of the studio and to his room.

She opened the door quietly, not knowing what she would find on the other side but ready to help if needed. Scott had 3 stages of anxiety attack. The first and most common would be that he just needed time for himself to calm down, two would be that he needed to hide and cry, because as much as it was funny, Scott was still a little boy inside – he would usually call his mom in those moments. The last one is the rarest of them all, but the hardest one to deal with – panic attack. She found him on the couch, in the position they had both learned years ago, and Tessa didn’t waste any time and sat down next to him, pressing her palm to his back, soothingly moving up and down.

She gave him the space he needed before pressing her forehead to his shoulder, not doing anything more. He would reach out for her the moment he was ready to. She could feel his breathing calming a little bit and she kept the rhythm of her breathing even and deep, to help him. Their pre-skate hug was not only a way to be close to each other and connect, but it was also a way to keep the anxiety at bay. Both of them were anxious by nature, and the best way to deal with their anxiety was to deal with it together. They had learned that a long time ago, when they were still training with Suzanne.

Her eyes were closed as she was focusing on his breathing. She needed to make sure he was calming down instead of working him up more. She jumped a little when his hand closed on her knee, asking for comfort in a silent manner. She moved around, until her body was facing his and pulled him down to her. Scott fell in her, turning in order to fit his body to hers. She started to play with his hair, keeping a soothing rhythm. It wasn’t because he had chosen to come to her that he had calmed down. He was simply ready to be touched “Babe?” Scott hummed and burrowed deeper into his spot. “Talk to me?” Scott shook his head from left to right, contracting his jaw to get his emotions under control. “Breathe with me, love. It’s okay.” Tessa turned her body around again, laying down and pulling him totally into her body. “It’s just us.” Tessa kept talking, not really making any sense but it was the most effective way to bring him back. She used to be so scared of those anxiety attack when she was younger but now, she knew exactly what to do based on his body language.

She let him stay and get back to her on his own time, still talking and still playing with his hair. “You’re okay, Scott. You’re safe. It’s just us, here. I love you. Always. Together.” After some time, Scott moved a little bit and pressed his lips to her neck. Their silent signal that the other was okay. Her entire body relaxed on the couch at that moment. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him. “You scared me, baby.” Tears were silently running down her cheek as she said that sentence. She hadn’t realized how tensed and scared she had been during the past hour or so. “I love you so much, Scott. I’m so sorry they did that to you. I just want you to be happy and safe.” She turned her head and kissed his forehead. “I wish people would take you seriously with your phobia.” She squeezed him once again, and nuzzled her head in his shoulder.

“It’s okay, T. I would be the first one to doubt it if anyone had told me they were scared of mascots.” She pulled himself up and turned them on their side, to face each other. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in. “You would have never done that, though. You are too nice of a man to be mean like this.” She pressed kissed all over his face and murmured the words he had wanted to hear since they had left Canada. “Let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> as always, kudos and comments are always welcome and keep me motivated. 
> 
> If you have any prompt, leave a comment below.


End file.
